DLI Foundation launches plan to foster multi-lingual learning, keeping DLI at arm’s length.

In 1995, California Gov. Pete Wilson made Monterey Bay’s claim as the “language capital of the world” official. 


Monterey Language Capital Advocates, a coalition of organizations, was formed in the early 1990s to support Monterey as that language hub. Its membership included the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Naval Postgraduate School, Defense Language Institute, CSU Monterey Bay, Language Line Services and CTB/McGraw Hill. But the group faded away about a decade ago.


“We’re the center of the language universe,” says former MLCA chair David Armanasco, president of Armanasco Public Relations.


MLCA’s focus was showing the economic value of the region’s language instruction and services, and encouraging growth in the industry. Armanasco is now vice chair of a new nonprofit pushing language education, the Defense Language Institute Foundation. 


“The main purpose is to promote foreign language learning in K-12,” Armanasco says. “We think the U.S. needs to devote more resources to offering language training to kids.”


The organization officially formed in 2011, but it’s just recently becoming active. The board has met twice, rented a Monterey office, and on April 25, appointed retired DLI Commandant Donald Fischer as president. 


The DLI Foundation hasn’t yet filed any annual reporting forms with the IRS, but board members say they’ve raised small contributions from their own volunteer ranks. Their fundraising goal is in the millions, Armanasco says.


Board members have met with DLI officials to learn about the institute’s primary languages and goals, but there’s no formal affiliation. DLI spokesman Dan Carpenter deferred all questions to the foundation. “Legally, there’s got to be a line between the foundation and the school,” he says. 


“The foundation is interested in developing a pool of potential students that might go into DLI,” says Foundation Chair Ken Nilsson, a 1957 DLI graduate who studied Japanese. “Our nexus is that we all love what DLI does, and we want to help support the mission of DLI to the extent permitted by law.”


That means keeping hard lines of separation so as to avoid the cross-over that got the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation reprimanded by the Naval Inspector General last year. Findings published in a federal report in November included unreported gifts from the foundation to the school, which factored into the Secretary of the Navy’s decision to fire former NPS President Dan Oliver and Provost Leonard Ferrari. 


The NPS Foundation hired a new executive director, retired Capt. David Silkey, on May 1. Former director Merrill Ruck retired but is staying on as the golf tournament coordinator.


Unlike the DLI Foundation, the NPS Foundation supports the school directly. “Like any other foundation at a university, we’re trying to raise private support to raise the excellence of the institution,” NPS Foundation President Bill Warner says. “It’s a model that’s really pervasive in higher education. It’s no different than Stanford or CSUMB. We’re simply trying to increase the margin of excellence at the institution, and that’s our role.”


Armanasco says the NPS shakeout led to a review of business practices so the DLI Foundation can avoid similar pitfalls. “We took a look and tried to learn a little bit more about it,” he says, “but it didn’t cause us to change course at all.”